Development of artificial blood vessels through tissue engineering

Background Cardiovascular diseases are one of the main causes of mortality in many parts of the world, with atherosclerosis figuring as the principal cause of coronary occlusion, stroke and aortic aneurysm [1]. Saphenous vein is the most commonly used vascular prosthesis for small-caliber (< 6 mm) vascular grafts, however, 10%-40% of patients do not have a saphenous vein suitable for prosthetic replacement due to size mismatch or venous disease [2]. Tissue engineering approaches are being used to develop palliative methods for these pathologies such as the construction of artificial blood vessels. The purpose of this study was to biosynthesize artificial vessels using Gluconacetobacter hasenii’s bacterial cellulose (BC) as scaffolding [3]. Functional and structural characteristics of the vessels were evaluated, as well as the coating of the cellulolytic tubular scaffolding with human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMC). The vessels obtained exhibited appropriate mechanical properties and their morphology showed connected nonporous and porous phases as a basis to mimic, respectively, the intimal and medial layers of a blood vessel. In vitro cultures of HASMCs in the presence of tubular scaffolds demonstrated their ability to support colonization by human aortic smooth muscle cells.